We make commitments to others and ourselves all the time. The question is: Do we keep them? When we fail to keep a promise, it communicates to the other person that we don’t value him or her. We have elected to place something else ahead…

It’s really not that difficult to live an extraordinary life. Most people look at those who are having success around them, and desire the same thing, but end up tossing their dreams in the too-hard-basket. They don’t understand that going from ordinary to extraordinary involves doing just a little bit extra. It is how I managed…

Several years ago when I was working in New York, a colleague asked me to take over his position on a cross-functional committee.  I definitely hesitated, as I was near the beginning of my career and was working crazy hours and churning out work product like there was no tomorrow so that I could prove…

Next time you come across a wishing well or fountain, don’t fall for it. You can still pitch in a coin or two if it’s for a good cause but just don’t make a wish like you are suppose to. In fact, you should NEVER make wishes if you want to be successful at…

Disclaimer: I am a GTD guy, so I tend to interchange GTD and productivity throughout the article. If you read this blog on a regular basis, or blogs like it, it is probably to find some sort of secret way to get more done in your day. So many people after reading David Allen’s Getting Things…

Some years ago I remember standing in my kitchen, staring silently at my boxes of cereal, trying to decide which to have for breakfast.  Was it a Frostie’s morning, or was it more of an Oat Crunchie’s day?  Or maybe granola?  I stood there for 5 minutes, until – utterly frustrated – I marched…

In a comment on my recent post about breaking up, someone asked if I’d write a follow-up about staying together. I’ve actually written about successful relationships before, based less on my own experience than on the work of relationship psychologists, so I’ll just refer you there if…

You want engagement. But no one’s buying. If you want something done you have to spell it out in detail, or even give up and get to that ugly “I’ll just do it myself” place of the defeated manager. You feel like every time you turn your back, the wheels come off the bus again. You’ve got zero engagement.

So how do you fix that?

Statistics show that only about 15% of New Years Resolutions are kept. With an 85% failure rate, it’s no wonder that the amount of resolutions made is dropping. You wouldn’t buy a product that is defective 85% of the time, so why buy into the annual hype about resolutions? A…

I don’t believe in resolutions. The idea that a trick of the calendar should be the driving force for real change in my life seems silly. And yet, there’s no denying that a year is a good block of time to think with — long enough to carry out big projects and short enough…

Wouldn’t it be nice to have everything run on autopilot? Chores, exercise, eating healthy and getting your work done just happening automatically. Unless they manage to invent robot servants, all your work isn’t going to disappear overnight. But if you program behaviors as new habits you can take out the struggle. With a…

Trust is an essential component in almost all dealings between human beings, other than outright hostile ones like wars and terrorism. It is certainly vital for the proper running of any organization, as well as for almost all the components of trade and commerce. Lack of trust between trading partners undermines the proper functioning of…

Sport and competition go together. Taking the competition away from sport would reduce it to a pointless, illogical activity. Competition and business go together too, and many links are made between sporting achievement and business success. But work and business are not games. Competition is no longer healthy in the workplace when it gets out…

A civilized workplace is one where people have the time and freedom to do their jobs to the best of their ability. No one is bullied or hassled by some boss high on ego and testosterone. Leaders trust their subordinates to do what they’re paid to do; and subordinates trust their leaders to act with their interests in mind as well as the firm’s profits (and the executives’ stock options).

Too many resolutions barely last through January. Here’s how to make plnas for 2006 you’ll be certain to keep.